1. The Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to a device used in connection with the donning of gloves. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus used to facilitate the donning of elastic gloves such as those used by health care professionals.
2. The Prior State of the Art.
Elastic gloves have become indispensable in the practice of modern health care procedures. Medical personnel such as surgeons, nurses, paramedics and dentists working in emergency rooms, intensive care units, obstetrics, dental offices, and many other similar environments are all routinely required to use such gloves, particularly if there is any risk of contact with body fluids. Typically, the gloves are fabricated from latex and assume a "skin tight" fit when applied to the hand, and are disposed of after a single use. Such elastic gloves are also used by industry in applications such as clean room environments or food handling and processing where protection of workers and/or products from contamination is necessary.
In light of growing concern over the spreading epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), it is more important than ever before for health care professionals to stop the spread of disease from an infected patient to the attending professional. This is in addition to the long recognized need to prevent transfer of infectious organisms from the hands of the attendant to the patient. Thus, health care professionals have adopted the practice of donning, removing, and donning new gloves much more often than previously thought necessary in order to protect themselves from infection as well as to protect their other patients from cross-contamination.
For example, dentists often employ several assistants who will each be simultaneously preparing a patient for the dentist's attention. Disadvantageously, as the dentist circulates among the patients the dentist must take the time to change gloves each time a different patient is examined. Due to the tight fit and elastic nature of the gloves, donning a pair of gloves may be time consuming and tedious. This is particularly so when the gloves must be donned without assistance.
An operating room is another environment of special concern where gloves must be worn. As opposed to the dentist's office where the outside surface of the gloves must be merely clean, the outside surface of the gloves used in the operating room must be sterile. Even in the operating room a change of gloves is often required due to the fact that gloves may be punctured or contaminated in some way during a procedure.
In order to keep the outside surface of prepackaged gloves sterile, conventional operating room procedure requires that an individual such as a scrub nurse first don a pair of gloves while making certain that the outside surface of the gloves does not come in contact with any unsterile object. The scrub nurse then assists the other members of the surgical team with the donning of their gloves.
Thus, many health care professionals are finding that they must don new gloves regularly throughout the workday. Nevertheless, many professionals dislike this necessity since putting on a pair of elastic gloves can be time consuming, especially without another individual to assist. These same mentioned considerations also apply in the industrial and scientific environments where gloves are similarly used.
In view of the foregoing, it would be an advance in the art to provide a glove applicator system which would allow a person to easily don a pair of elastic gloves without requiring the assistance of another individual. It would be a further advance in the art to provide a glove applicator system which would maintain the sterility or cleanliness of the outer surface of the gloves putting them on. It would also be an advance in the art to provide a glove applicator system which may be used with many different sizes and styles of elastic gloves without modification.